Sunday morning saw me heading to Maldon Wick to join an Essex Wildlife Trust working party on the reserve.
For those not aware, the reserve entrance is off Limebrook Way, directly opposite Morrisons Supermarket. It comprises a two and a half kilometre stretch of the old railway (towards Cold Norton) along with a meadow, and pond.
As I arrived, the meadow looked amazing in the sunshine, with a striking display of Oxeye Daisies and Meadow Buttercups.
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| The Meadow at Maldon Wick |
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| Oxeye Daisies |
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| Meadow Buttercups |
The quality of the meadow is demonstrated by the presence of the many other flowers to be found amongst the various grass species. These include Common Vetch, Smooth and Hairy Tare and the locally scarce Grass Vetchling.
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| Grass Vetchling |
There was also a lot of the strangely named Corky-fruited Water-dropwort, that appears to be spreading in its distribution, possibly due to climate change.
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| Corky-fruited Water-dropwort |
Best of all though, was the discovery of a lone Common Spotted Orchid.
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| Common Spotted Orchid |
As we walked round to the back of the pond we were suprised to find that the huge volume of the invasive Floating Penywort, that was starving the pond of light and crowding out other species, has been removed. Not sure who carried out this work but many thanks whoever you are!
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| The pond at Maldon Wick (June 2023) |
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| The pond as it was in Sept 2022, covered in Floating Pennywort |
We then walked along the path down the centre of the old railway line embankment. Though not an official public footpath, the path is open for people to use and connects up with public footpaths running east-west further along the embankment.
Again we were impressed by how tidy it was. Great that people are looking after it.
Despite it being quite late in the day, there was still plenty of birdsong, including Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Whitethroat. A Cuckoo was calling in the distance. About a mile down the line we heard some brief phrases from a Nightingale and then heard another from the treebelt leading towards Hazeleigh Hall Wood.
Again we were impressed by how tidy it was. Great that people are looking after it.
Despite it being quite late in the day, there was still plenty of birdsong, including Blackcaps, Chiffchaffs and Whitethroat. A Cuckoo was calling in the distance. About a mile down the line we heard some brief phrases from a Nightingale and then heard another from the treebelt leading towards Hazeleigh Hall Wood.
We noticed several small trees completely covered in webs of caterpillars, that had stripped them of leaves. The trees were Spindle Trees and the moth caterpillars, Spindle Ermines. Whilst the trees were seriously impacted, please note that these caterpillars are completely harmless to people- quite unlike the hairy caterpillars of Brown-tailed Moths, that should be avoided as they can cause quite severe skin irritation.
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| Webs of caterpillars in Spindle Tree |
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| Spindle Ermine Moth Caterpillar |
The southern end of the reserve is somewhat of a dead-end as the next section of railway line is on private land and there is no footpath access to it.
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| 'The end of the line' |
The walk back was enlivened by the sight of a Grey Heron flying up from the pond.
There were lots of Speckled Wood Butterfies along the pathway, cavorting in the sunshine, and some Orange Tips, as well as one of the other whites, but the only other species seen on the reserve was a Common Blue. As elsewhere in the county, butterfly numbers have been very disappointing so far this year around Maldon.
From June onwards, the reserve is usually also the haunt of a wide range of dragonflies and damselflies. On Sunday, the only one I spotted was Azure Damselfly. Hopefully the other expected species, such as Emperor Dragonfly and Red-eyed Damselfly, will join them soon.
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| Azure Damselfly |
My final view was of the Dog Roses, providing some wonderful colour to the hedgerows along the eastern border of the reserve.
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| Dog Rose |
Many thanks to Gary for arranging the work party and for providing most of the equipment. This is a reserve worthy of respect and needs to be looked after for the benefit of us all.